


John Egbert Gets 1) Punched In the Face and 2) A Boyfriend

by pedipalps



Series: Black Spot Soulmate AU [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Coming Out, First Kiss, Getting Together, M/M, Not Epilogue Compliant, Trans Dirk Strider, author has read the epilogues and chose to ignore them, i started writing this way before the epilogues came out so i dont give a shit, john is depressed and nobody talks about it, technically, this talks about it a little bit, uhhh
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-19
Updated: 2019-08-19
Packaged: 2020-09-07 07:46:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,197
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20305942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pedipalps/pseuds/pedipalps
Summary: Soulmate au where people are born with a black spot on their body in the first place that their soulmate ever touches them! Part of a series, but reading the first part is not necessary to understand what's going on!





	John Egbert Gets 1) Punched In the Face and 2) A Boyfriend

**Author's Note:**

> howdy do pardners its been a long fucking time since ive posted homestuck stuff and as much as i hate to say it theres a good chance that this will be the last time i do but. we'll see
> 
> anyway uhhhh i started writing this for fucking ever ago and only finished it like. this week and the only reason i didnt post it as soon as it was done was cause i couldnt think of a FUCKING name but. i think the one i came up with is pretty fucking solid if you ask me
> 
> like it says up wherever this is part of a series but you don't have to read the first part to get it like the first one was davekat and this one is dirkjohn theres only like one tiny reference to the other story in here its really okay if you dont wanna read the first part
> 
> thank you for reading this, and if youve read any of my other stuff before thank you for that too, sorry that theres such a good chance i wont be writing homestuck stuff anymore,,, i still like it just for some reason ever since the epilogues came out and mp100 season 2 also came out i havent been focused on it as much. hopefully ill get back into my homestuck groove someday and write some more stuff but for now this is it boys. i just couldnt leave this unfinished lmao its the longest thing ive ever written so far and i needed it to be seen
> 
> k these notes are getting way too fucking long so. again thank you for reading and i hope you enjoy!!

You aren't proud of your soulmark. You never have been. You used to try to be, but it was hard when you would always get strange looks or when you actually thought about the implications of its location. Early in your life you'd begun covering it, and the occasional strange look you got buying makeup from the store was well worth getting rid of the constant stares and hushed whispers you'd gotten throughout your childhood. 

Even throughout the game you'd kept up the habit, not wanting your friends to say anything if they saw it through their computer screens or when they first saw you in person. You'd done a pretty good job of keeping it a secret from them, you think -- no one out of your group really talked about soul marks that often, and you weren't the only one who straight up didn't want to say where yours was (Dave often tended to avoid the subject, too. If you didn't have your own reasons for hiding yours you might have questioned him about it, but you always left it be). 

The first time any of them ever saw it was when you were on the ship, on the way to the new session. You'd just gotten out of a shower (which you'd always thought was funny -- the fact that there were showers on a giant golden battleship), and you were heading back to the room that you'd designated as yours so you could re-do your makeup to cover it up. You'd almost made it, standing right outside of the door, when Jade had come out of her own room, which was right next to yours. She hadn't been paying attention to you on her way out, staring at a phone she'd alchemized and talking to Davesprite over a local connection on pesterchum. You'd frozen in your spot, aware that your mark was uncovered and clearly visible to anyone with eyes that worked (which was everyone on the ship, as far as you knew) but yet unable to move to hide away in your room before she noticed. You were snapped out of your daze, however, when Jade, who still hadn't been paying attention to where she was going, had walked right into you and, as a result of the unexpected collision, knocked both of you to the floor. 

That was when she had looked up, her mouth open, at first to probably reprimand you for not paying attention where you were going (ha ha), but as soon as she saw your face it was her turn to freeze, her open mouth turning from one of impending speech to one of shock. Pretty much all she could say at first was "John, oh my god," and similar phrases, but after a few moments it had turned more to questioning. Is that your soul mark? Has it really been there your whole life? Have you really been covering it up for the entire game? You'd answered her questions, and forced her to promise to not tell Davesprite, and she'd shown you her mark (a very obviously hand-shaped mark on her side) and forced you to promise to not tell Davesprite (she did like him, but she knew by that point that he was not her soulmate), and you'd hugged her and it was a very touching moment and a great bonding experience for both of you. After that, you'd retreated into your room and replaced your makeup as you'd originally intended to do. 

You'd continued to keep your mark covered for the next few weeks, until you fucked up again and Davesprite had seen it (in much the same sort of scenario, except in one that ended in less of an ectosibling bonding kind of way). He'd actually been pretty cool about it, and you'd decided to leave it uncovered for the rest of your trip, electing only to cover it up again when you arrived in the new session, starting a few days before you were supposed to get there. 

Everything following when you'd arrived had been… a doozy, to say the least. Like, wow. A lot happened. One thing of note had been when you'd met Roxy. You liked her, maybe a lot, but it had become apparent pretty quickly that she wasn't your soulmate. That didn't mean you stopped liking her though, it just. Made you a bit sad.

What made you more sad, though, was when you finally got a chance to talk to Jade after you'd arrived in the new session, fought the final battle, and won the game. You were on the victory platform, and you were talking to her and Jane, both of whom you hadn't really had a chance to talk to due to the fact that they were both asleep when you'd arrived, and Jane had brought up the topic of soulmates. Jade had excitedly asked you where your mark was, and yeah. That kind of hurt a little. Or a lot. You'd known that she was technically not the same Jade as the one you'd spent three years with, and the one who'd seen your soulmark, but that was something that you had shown to almost no one, let alone been comfortable enough to exist with it uncovered all the time -- something you'd been unable to do since before the retcon. You supposed it meant that her John had died before she had the chance to see his, which you could only assume was in the same place as yours. It was just that, it was a part of yourself that you were afraid to show pretty much ever, and you were right back to where you were before, where no one knew except for you (your dad had known, but, again, ouch, and the only other person who'd seen it was now a bird-troll-person hybrid sprite. Not exactly great). You got over it, though, and you'd brushed off the question for the time and neither Jade or Jane had questioned you about it again, even after the end of the game. 

You'd eventually stopped really thinking about it, too. You just kept on how you had, always keeping it covered, and eventually you quit worrying about it all the time and focused more on the other aspects of your new life after the game. 

And, yeah, that wasn't easy either. You loved your friends, you really did, and most of the time you were able to look past the fact that they were technically different people than the ones that you'd gotten to know, but sometimes it was just so hard to ignore. It was just little things, tiny differences, but they could leave you fucked up for days on end, sometimes. 

Occasionally, you wondered if that was why you started getting closer to the Alpha kids, the friends you'd made who you hadn't known before the game or even really before the retcon, and therefore had nothing to be different from. The only one of them you'd really talked to before besides Roxy was Dirk, and, yeah, that had been a little weird, but it still wasn't enough for you to know him at all, which meant that you found it easier to talk to him than many of your friends from before. You got closer to Dirk and Roxy than the other two, most likely due to the fact that you'd talked to Roxy a fair bit already and she could relate to your feelings due to being in practically the same situation, and she brought Dirk with her a lot whenever you two would hang out. 

And, after a while of hanging out with him and a bit of a self-revelation that maybe you were more of a homosexual than you'd originally thought you were, you started to maybe like Dirk. Just a little bit (it was still kinda scary to admit to yourself sometimes that maybe kissing someone who wasn't a girl might not be that bad). You didn't really act on it, though you couldn't help but think that maybe he might like you back. 

So yeah, okay, maybe you were a little bit gay. And maybe you were a little afraid to tell anyone, which was just fantastic, since it was just another thing that you felt like you had to constantly hide. The only people you told about your not-so-straight-ness were Roxy and Dirk, strategically leaving out the part about having feelings for the latter, and they promised to not tell any of the others. You just didn't feel ready yet.

Of course, having feelings for Dirk didn't stop you from trying to prank him every so often though -- keyword there being  _ trying _ . Dirk was hard to spook, which you had to admit you should have figured out sooner, due to the circumstances of his childhood, having grown up in complete solitude yet still probably having to be constantly aware of everything on account of the murderous sea witch that ruled over the version of Earth that he was from.

You did eventually get him, though, at Rose and Kanaya's wedding. He was engrossed in a conversation with Karkat and Dave, and you'd decided to attempt the classic trick of sneaking up behind someone and scaring them when they don't expect it. You'd tried to do this before, but he had always caught you sneaking up on him and put a stop to your prank before it even had the chance to start. This time, though, he didn't see or hear you coming, due to the background noise of the wedding reception happening around him, and you'd managed to make your way up to him and yell directly into his ears from behind him. He'd jumped slightly, which you were fairly certain you could only see because you were so close to him, and turned around, probably on instinct but so fast you couldn't see him move and you had no idea what was happening until you felt his fist connect with your jaw and you fell to the floor and lost consciousness almost immediately (you vaguely remember hearing a chorus of "holy shit"s from the people who'd managed to see what had happened).

When you'd woken up, you were at Rose and Kanaya's house, with the aforementioned pair examining your face carefully, which was throbbing painfully, along with Dirk, who was standing a little way away but was still present (everyone else had long since left for the night).

When Dirk had noticed you were awake, he'd taken a couple steps toward you, hesitated, and said, "uh. Sorry. I don't- uh, I didn't mean to- to just hit you like that."

You grinned, hoping that it would indicate your forgiveness and wincing a little due to the pain in your jaw when you did, and said, "I got you though."

He had cracked a bit of a sheepish grin at that, and replied, "yeah, I guess you did. But so did I, I guess. That's a hell of a bruise you've got there."

That was when you'd remembered that, oh yeah, your soul mark that no one knows about, and your grin had fallen away as you realized that that was where you got hit, and it probably wiped off most of your makeup as a result. You'd stood up quickly, given a quick "I have to go", and made a hasty escape back to your own house. Upon your arrival you'd made a mad dash to the bathroom, and sighed a breath of relief at seeing that the mark had been covered by the dark bruise that had shown up on your cheek and on the side of your chin along your jaw. You gingerly touched it, wincing at the pain, and cursed yourself when you realized that you wouldn't be able to go out for a while due to being unable to put makeup on over your mark. 

The first day that your face had stopped hurting too much to do so, you covered up your face again. That same day, none other than Dirk Strider himself decided to pay you a visit. You were about to go outside (really for no reason at all) when you heard a knock on the door, and you opened it, realized who it was, and quickly shut the door again in panic. A moment later, you realized what you'd just done, and opened it again to see the one and only Dirk Strider, holding his hand up like he had been about to knock again when you'd opened the door. 

Underneath the fingerless glove he's wearing, you can see a dark bruise across his knuckles where he'd hit you. You cringe a bit to yourself, hoping he can't see it, and say, "hi."

He uncurls his fist on the hand he was about to knock with and gives you a small wave before putting his hand back at his side. "Hey."

Neither of you say anything for a few seconds that feel like an eternity, and then he asks, "so uh… how are you doing? Like, your face. Sorry about that, by the way, I didn't mean to- you know what, it's- I thought that I'd- sorry." You don't say anything yet, because you can see him kind of fidgeting where he's standing and you know there's something he wants to say but hasn't yet. You're far from surprised when he actually says something next, though. "What happened to your face? Wait, shit, I mean, I know what happened, I fucking punched you but like, there's no bruise? What the fuck is up with that?"

"Makeup," you reply. You're doing your best to not show it (which is actually pretty good), but you think it's pretty funny (cute) when Dirk stutters and loses track of what he's saying, or when he starts to ramble. It's one thing he has in common with Dave, which you're often reminded of whenever you two hang out. 

He seems to think about that for a second, furrowing his brow and bringing a hand up to his chin, before shaking his head a bit as if dismissing whatever thought he'd previously had, and asks, "can I come inside? I've got something I want to talk to you about."

You're a bit suspicious, but mostly just because you want to know what he wants to talk about, so you nod an answer in the affirmative before stepping to the side and holding the door open so he can come in. 

Dirk walks through the door and to your couch, and you follow him, taking a seat beside him after he does the same. As you wait for him to speak, you watch him as he twiddles his thumbs and shuffles his feet a bit on the carpet. He opens his mouth and then closes it again a couple of times, almost like he's trying to think about how to say what he wants to tell you, before clenching his jaw in what you can only guess is resolve as he squeezes his eyes shut and pulls the fingerless glove he's wearing off of his left hand and holds it up in front of you.

You're a bit confused for a second, because it just looks like a bruise, but then you start to see other colors that you're sure don't belong. There are some shades of blue that are barely too bright, some light yellow that you know you've never seen on any bruise in your life before, and one particular tiny spot of green that looks almost neon. You realize that your eyes are wide, your eyebrows high up on your forehead, and your mouth gapes open as you come to a realization at the same time as Dirk finally manages to say it out loud. 

"I think we're soulmates." 

You don't know what to say, so you don't say anything. Then, you remember that, if his hand has all these new colors on it, your face probably will too, so you quickly say "hold on a second", stand up from the couch, and move to the bathroom so fast that you're not sure if your feet even touch the floor (you're almost certain you don't actually step on a single stair on your way up). As soon as you're in front of the mirror, you grab a wet towel from beside the sink and, with no regard to how much it hurts (which is kind of a lot, because it's only been a few days since you got punched in the face so hard you passed out, which hasn't happened in a long time), you aggressively scrub all of the makeup off of your face. Once you're sure you've got all (or at least most) of it, you look closely at your face -- really looking closely, trying to find something, and you're certain this is the most you've looked at your bare face in years. 

It doesn't take you long to find what you're looking for. Sure, it definitely still looks like a bruise, but if you're looking for it, it's hard to miss the spots of bright orange and swirls of maroon, colors that just don't happen in bruises. There are definitely also plenty of colors that you  _ would _ expect to find in a bruise, but between them, almost like the real colors that belong there are underneath, there's hints of bright hues and colors that you're guessing and hoping will become more apparent later. 

You feel like- you're not sure what you feel like. You just know that you're feeling a hell of a lot of feelings. You're overjoyed, you're terrified, you're excited, and you can't stop thinking about Dirk. 

Dirk, who you see step into the bathroom behind you in the mirror just as all of your emotions start streaming down your face. You turn around as soon as you see him enter, and you take a step towards him and freeze before you can reach where he's sheepishly standing by the door. He's still got his glove off, and now that you know what to look for it's easy to pick out your colors on him with just a glance to where he's holding his left arm with his right hand, with the aforementioned glove held tight in the clenched fist of his bare hand. You're not sure exactly what he's feeling, but he seems to have broken out of his perpetual poker face for the time being and if you had to guess you would say he's worried. 

You open your mouth to speak, but nothing will come out, so instead you move the rest of the way across the short distance between the two of you and grab him by the shoulders. He flinches, as if you somehow managed to startle him, and releases his own arm from the grip of his right hand and you barely register a sound as the glove he was previously holding drops to the floor as you lean in and rest your forehead against his for just a moment, waiting to see if he will pull away. 

When he doesn't, you close the gap and kiss him. 

It feels… right. It feels like everything you've done up to this point, everyone you've ever loved, all of it was meant to lead to to right here, to lead you to Dirk. In a way, you suppose that's exactly what happened. You feel your face heat up where your soul mark is, the side of your jaw warming up and almost tingling -- a sensation that you now vaguely remember feeling as you had fallen to the ground after Dirk had hit you at Rose and Kanaya's wedding -- and then you realize it's because Dirk has raised his left hand up to your face and is resting his knuckles against your jaw, right where he had hit you. You imagine the position would be a bit awkward to look at from an outsider's viewpoint, but you don't care, and instead you opt to move your right hand away from Dirk's shoulder and cup it around his hand where it's still touching your face as you pull yourself away from him and once again rest your forehead against his. You can feel his breath against your lips, and suddenly it feels like this is the entire world, right here, just you two, and that to speak normally would be completely unheard of, so you whisper.

You're smiling as you speak, as quietly as possible, to your newfound soulmate. "I'm glad it's you."

You feel him wrap his arm around your back and pull you closer to him, and you can hear the smile in his voice when he answers. "I'm glad you're glad. I'm glad too."

You remove your left hand from where it was on his and your right from his shoulder and hold both sides of his face and kiss him again. You know the moment his hand leaves your face, the warm feeling fading some but not disappearing completely as he drapes his hand around the back of your neck, and you chuckle a bit into his mouth as he plays with the ends of your hair. 

Pulling back just a little, you crack a grin and say, "dude, this is cheesy as fuck."

You can see that he's sporting a grin of his own as he replies. "Nah, it's ironic. Just guys being dudes."

You snort and snack him gently on the chest, before leaning forward and resting your head on his shoulder, wrapping your arms around him and hugging him tightly. You're not sure what to say so you don't say anything. Thankfully, the silence isn't awkward. Honestly it probably should be considering you basically just made out with one of your friends in your bathroom, but it really isn't and you're extremely glad for that. 

The two of you stay there for a few minutes that feel like an eternity, until eventually Dirk speaks. "So, can we be like. Boyfriends?"

You lift your head up to look at him and snort in laughter. "Yeah, you dumb, we can be like boyfriends." Then you kiss him again, revelling in the soft warmth of his lips against yours and enjoying every second as best as you can. You're smiling more than you have in a long time. You decide, just then, that you never want this moment to end. 

For a long time, it doesn't. You and Dirk stay right where you are for so long that you lose track of time, sharing soft words and even softer kisses every so often and only moving when you notice that the sky outside of the windows has gone dark. Dirk begins to say something to the effect of a goodbye, but before he can finish anything you've pulled him by the hand into your bedroom. The two of you curl up together on your bed, wrapped around each other in a way that probably shouldn't be comfortable but manages to be anyway. You fall asleep with your head on his shoulder and a contented smile on your face. 

When you wake up the next morning you're pleased to find that Dirk is still there. The two of you have managed to move around in your sleep and when you try to shift yourself a bit you find that you're pinned in your spot by Dirk himself, who's got his arms around you and his head on your chest, still sound asleep. You stay where you are and watch him for a while until he stirs. 

You see the moment his eyes flutter open, his shades having been folded up and put on your nightstand at some point that you can't quite recall. Your own glasses are sitting beside them, and you definitely don't remember taking those off either.

"Good morning," you whisper. You can't stop the smile that creeps onto your face, not that you would want to.

His eyes focus, having been zoned out from just waking up, and he turns his head to look at you. "Mornin'". You're pleased to see that he's smiling too. 

"You slept in your binder," you point out, recalling that neither of you took off any of your clothes when you'd gone to your bedroom, which would definitely mean that dirk was still wearing it.

"So it would seem," he replies. "It'll be okay, I don't tend to make a habit of it. I'll just have to make sure I take it off later." 

"Yeah, okay. I don't know a whole lot about that stuff, I just remember hearing someone say once that you're not supposed to do that."

"Well you aren't, but one time won't hurt. I'll be fine, promise." He shifts a bit, sitting up slightly and reaching over to pick up his shades and place them gently on his face before he rolls over off of you, ending up laying on his back next to you. 

Moving on from the previous topic, you pout. "I love your eyes dude, I wish you didn't have to wear those all the time." 

"Light sensitivity man, gotta wear 'em or else my vision'll get fucked up." 

You sign dramatically. "Yeah, sure, whatever." You sit up, propping yourself up with your elbow on the bed behind you, resting your head against your palm, and turning to your right to look down at Dirk where he's still laying down. "It's not bright in here, though," you say, and with your left hand you reach down and pluck Dirk's sunglasses off of his face. 

He makes a distressed sound as if you've somehow managed to catch him off guard (which you know is pretty much impossible most of the time, but which you've learned can have some rather painful consequences for you if you actually manage) and tries to grab them back from you, but you've placed them comfortably on the top of your head and rested a hand on his side before he can get them. 

With his eyes uncovered, you can tell that he's not being entirely serious when he says, "be careful, John. Those glasses mean more to me than anything else in this world."

Pouting and feigning hurt, you reply, "more than me? You wound me, Dirk. And here I thought we were soulmates." 

"Alas, how quickly I forget." He reaches his left hand up to gently caress your face, right along your mark. "Maybe I should punch you again to refresh my memory."

"Hmm, maybe we should wait a little while until this bruise has healed to go giving me any new ones." You turn your head to the side just enough to plant a soft kiss against his palm. "Maybe this will help, though," you continue, leaning down to him and pressing your lips against his. As you're about to pull away, Dirk's hand that was previously against your cheek moves to the back of your head and you feel him bringing you back down, and you're definitely not complaining about that.

You move your left hand from his side to his shoulder, and push yourself up again with your right arm, this time so you can move it out from underneath you and push you up even higher. Dirk follows your lips as you move up and over until you're on top of him, sitting on your knees with one on either side of his torso and both of your hands on the sides of his face. You feel him tap lightly on your back with the hand that's not on your neck and you pull away for just a second to ask, breathless, "yeah?"

"Hold on a sec, lemme just-" he takes both of his hands off of you and uses them to push himself up, sliding out from under you until he's resting with his back against your headboard. "There we go. Now, c'mere." He motions you towards him, and once you've crawled close enough to him for him to do so, both of his arms loosely wrap around your neck and he pulls you back in to kiss him again. 

Your hands start out on the mattress on either side of him, but as you move further forward you place them up under his shirt and let them rest on his sides, no longer needing them to support your weight above him, and you sit in his lap as he kisses you. 

A few moments later, though, you feel yourself falling as Dirk shoves you just hard enough to send you backwards onto your mattress, and your new boyfriend utterly betrays your trust by quickly grabbing his shades back from off the top of your head, dashing off of your bed and escaping out of your bedroom, eyewear in hand. As you fall, you exclaim, "shit!" and try to right yourself as quickly as you can. You roll to the side until you find the edge of your bed and manage to completely fall off of it, cursing again as you go. 

As you stand up and start to run in what you think is the direction you went, you shout, laughing, "you motherfucker! Get back here!" 

You hear him reply from the direction of your living room. "Come and get me."

Following the sound of his voice, you find him lying on your couch with his recently reclaimed shades back on his face. 

As you walk over to the couch and sit down by Dirk's feet, you say, "man, you're lucky I didn't fall and die on my way here. I don't have my glasses and, last I checked, there was no one here to make sure that I was properly warned about stairs."

Dirk snorts a bit at that, and then asks, "dude, why didn't you just put your glasses back on before coming after me?"

"Because shut up is why." You cross your arms and pout, looking away from Dirk and turning up your chin indignantly. When he doesn't immediately give a response, you look back at him and continue speaking. "Maybe I just didn't feel like wearing them right now."

"John, you're pretty much blind without your glasses, there's no imaginable way that you could not feel like wearing them."

"Suppose it was the heat of the moment, then," you retort. "I was so invested in claiming my prize that I simply forgot to grab them." 

Dirk nods. "Yeah, I could buy that one. Though, I personally don't recall the moment being very heated, unless you happen to be referring to our previous activities." He punctuates "previous activities" by wiggling his eyebrows at you, and you laugh and slap him on one of his legs.

"Shut up, you dumbass. It wasn't  _ that _ heated." 

Dirk Strider, asshole that he is, wiggles his eyebrows at you again. "But it could be."

You smack him again, your face heating up a bit at his implication, though you're laughing as you speak. "No! Stop it, you ass. We weren't gonna do anything and you know it." 

"Well shucks, and here I was hoping you were the kind of guy who fucks on the first date." You can tell from his complete deadpan voice and expression that he's still kidding around with you. 

"Sorry Dirk, I'm just too good for things like that. And hell, this wasn't even a date. You pretty much just showed up at my house and told me we were soulmates and then we made out for like, an hour and a half." 

"Sounds date-ish enough for me."

You shake your head, smiling amusedly. "Nope, you've gotta at least buy me dinner first."

"Shit John, you know I'm poor, why you gotta do that to me." He sits up then, crossing his legs in front of him and leaning forward a bit, resting his elbows on his knees. "Would you accept kisses as payment instead?"

You bring one hand up to your chin as if you have to think for a moment or so to find an answer. "Hmm, I suppose that could be alright. I'll be the judge of when your debt is paid, though."

Leaning in towards you, he answers, "sounds good to me." 

Turning to face him and scooting a bit closer to the center of the couch where he is, you meet him in the middle and kiss him. His hand finds yours and he laces your fingers together as you feel his lips move against yours and his other hand comes up to rest against your cheek, lightly stroking his thumb over your skin. 

You lean further into him, and he ends up letting himself fall backwards until he's laying down on the couch again, not unlike how he was when you'd found him a few minutes ago. You go down with him and end up laying on top of him, your chests pressed together. Feeling his legs come uncrossed, you settle between them, and they end up linked together by his ankles behind your back. Dirk moves his hand away from your face and down to your side, and his other stays holding yours, hanging off the side of the couch. With your free hand you pull his shades off of his face again, gently dropping them on the floor so they're out of the way. 

After a moment, you feel something warm and wet slide across your lips that can't be anything other than Dirk's tongue. You let out a quiet hum and then part your lips slightly, allowing him to slip his tongue into your mouth and wow holy shit. Who knew something as simple as letting your tongue touch someone else's could be so nice. You're not entirely sure that you know what you're doing, but when you gently suck on Dirk's tongue and swirl your own around the tip of his, he lets out a low groan, which makes you think that that must have been pretty good. 

You slide your free and previously unoccupied hand down to Dirk's waist and then up under the hem of his shirt, just feeling the skin there, and you're skirting your fingers along the bottom edge of his binder and enjoying how warm he is under his shirt and how absolutely fucking great it is to have your tongue in someone else's mouth when suddenly there's a knock at your front door. 

You pull yourself away from Dirk abruptly and look towards the door and then back to Dirk with a somewhat panicked expression on your face. 

From the other side of the door, you hear a voice. "Hey, John? You home?" You recognize it to be Dave. Of course it had to be Dave. "I just wanted to check on you or whatever cause no one's seen you in a few days. I know Dirk said he was coming over here yesterday but he never said anything about how you were doing?" There's a pause, and then, "why am I still talking? You probably can't hear me anyway, huh." 

You look back down at Dirk, who's wearing an expression similar to your own, and you quickly scramble off of his lap and to the opposite side of the couch, and you motion for him to get behind it. He seems to get the idea and jumps up and over the back to crouch on the floor behind your couch just as you say loud enough that you know Dave can hear, "just a second!" 

You look over the back of the couch at Dirk, who gives you a quick thumbs-up, which you return, before you hop off the couch and dust yourself off a bit as you walk towards your front door. 

Just as you reach for the handle, you hear Dirk hiss a breath through his teeth and say "shit, John, wait-" but he's cut off as you turn the knob and open the door.

Standing on the other side is Dave, just as you'd suspected. 

"Hey John, what's up, we were all just wondering if you were okay- hey what the fuck happened to your face?" As Dave cuts off his own greeting to question you, you realize just what it must have been that caused Dirk to warn you before you opened the door -- your face is completely void of makeup. Your bruise, and thus also your newly-colored soul mark, is completely uncovered and clearly on display for Dave to see. You're also still not wearing your glasses, and you can only do your best to hope that Dave won't notice. 

"Shit, uh," you flounder for a second, trying to figure out what to say, and for a moment you consider just shutting the door in his face like you'd done to Dirk the day before. After a few moments, though, you find your voice -- thankfully before Dave can start asking you more questions. Attempting to change the subject, you ask, "did you say Dirk was coming over here?"

Dave nods enthusiastically. "Yeah, have you seen him?" Dave looks past you and into your house. You can tell that he's scanning your living room, almost like he's trying to see if his brother is actually there. 

You shake your head and do your best to not give away your lie. "No, uh, he never showed up." 

"Hmm, that's weird."

"Yeah." At this point, you run out of things to say, which gives Dave just the opening he needed, apparently. 

"Dude, is that a soul mark?" 

You hiss out a quiet curse, reaching a hand up towards your cheek as Dave calls it back into attention. "Uh, yeah, I um- yeah, fuck." You rub your eye and sigh, figuring there's no point trying to hide it now. "Yeah, it's a soul mark." 

Dave's jaw drops. You're also sure that his eyes are wide, but you can't see them behind his shades. "Holy shit, John! That's fucking insane! Who is it?" 

You cringe a bit as he starts to question you. You hadn't planned on letting anyone know this soon. You'd meant to talk to Dirk about it, but none of your friends even knew that you weren't straight, let alone that your soulmate was the brother of one of said friends. "Dave, I don't know if-"

He cuts you off, holding up a finger to stop you. "Wait, don't tell me." He moves his hand to underneath his chin, looking very thoughtful for a moment before he speaks again. "Is it Roxy? That looks like a nasty spot dude, did she hit you? And where the fuck was your mark before?"

"No, Dave, it's-" You sigh again. "It's not Roxy." No point hiding it now, right? You turn around and begin to walk into your house, stopping a moment to turn and hold one finger up to Dave to tell him to hold on a second. You walk over to your couch and look behind it to see Dirk still crouched on the floor. You can't stop the small smile that takes over your face when you see him, but you ignore that for the moment and wave a hand towards yourself and then grab his hand and begin to pull him up. 

He resists, and you let him go. You raise an eyebrow in questioning and he whispers, "John, are you sure about this?" You know he doesn't just mean the fact that your soulmate is him specifically.

You steal a quick glance over at Dave and look back at Dirk. Nodding as you speak, you quietly reply, "I think I am. I don't see why anyone would have a problem with it, I mean, c'mon, I'm pretty sure at this point our whole group is gay in some way or another. I just," you sigh and hold out your hand to him. He takes it, and you stroke your thumb over the back of his hand. "I think I'm tired of feeling like I'm hiding part of myself from everyone." 

You realize then that you had been looking down at where your hand is holding Dirk's, and when you look back to his face you see that his mouth is hanging slightly open and, since he never put his sunglasses back on, you can see that his eyes are wide as well. You smile at him, and when you begin to pull him up again, this time he lets you.

The second that Dirk's head is higher than the back of your couch, you somewhat distantly hear Dave say "holy shit" from where he's still in your doorway. 

You help Dirk onto his feet but keep your hold on his hand when he's up, and you turn to look at Dave with a sheepish smile on your face. "So, uh, yeah. It's Dirk? My soulmate. It's, uh. It's Dirk. Also, uh, I like guys? Surprise, I guess."

Dave looks completely blown away. You have the slight feeling that you've turned his world upside down, at least a little bit. His mouth moves a bit, opens and closes like he wants to say something but can't. 

You look towards Dirk, squeezing his hand in your own, and even though you know Dave probably isn't actually upset, you're a bit nervous for whatever he might say. 

Dave takes a few seconds before he speaks again. You almost start to worry for him-- he seems to be quite strained with the effort of thinking of what to say. Just before you're about to ask if he's okay, he yells, "what the fuck!" 

Dirk snorts beside you, and you can't stop yourself from laughing, both at him and at Dave's reaction. You feel your nervousness disappear, and you look to Dirk, smiling as you say, "that wasn't as bad as I thought."

Returning your smile, Dirk replies, "That's good, but I think Dave is going to blow up or something. Look at him."

You turn back towards Dave and immediately shoot a hand up to cover your mouth to stop yourself from laughing again. Dave's mouth is wide open in shock, his shades have fallen down his nose far enough that you can see his eyes are wide as well, and his shoulders are raised nearly up to his ears. Also, his feet are far apart and his knees are bent, like he's widened his stance to keep from falling over. All in all, it looks pretty fucking funny. 

Just from looking at him though, you know that he's not like, against you being gay or anything, he's just completely floored that the person you happen to be gay  _ with  _ is his brother. As far as coming out experiences go, you think you did pretty alright for your first one. 

As you realize this, you can't stop yourself from thinking about how you'll tell everyone else. You aren't nervous about it at all anymore, and thinking back now, you aren't quite sure why you ever had been. That thought, along with feeling of Dirk's hand still in your own, is enough to get you feeling pretty damn sappy.

You're pretty sure you're going to be okay. 


End file.
